Official Luke Lewis

sharks2010

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Luke Lewis:*Big league dream becomes a reality
By Brad Forrest March 5, 2013, 5:30 a.m.

Dream change: Sharks new international recruit Luke Lewis and his wife Sonia at their Burraneer home before Cronulla’s first game of the NRL season on Sunday. Picture: John Veage
IT was about 3am one day in the middle of last year when a sleeping Sonia Lewis, wife of Penrith Panther international Luke Lewis, found out which club her husband was going to play for in 2013.


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‘‘I was fast asleep, like most normal people at that time of the morning, when Luke shook me,’’ Sonia Lewis recalled.

Her husband had already been granted a release from Penrith, among much acrimony within the Panthers lair, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer the very week after ... and now this.

‘‘Luke told me he had a dream and he had to immediately ring Greg and Ben [his managers Greg Willett and Ben Johnston] ... to tell them he wanted to play for the Sharks,’’ she said.

‘‘I reminded him what time it was.’’

Lewis laughed recalling the incident, at a time when he and his managers were weighing up a few different league offers, including from Cronulla.

*‘‘Yeah, I think knowing and having played with blokes like Michael Gordon [who’d already decided to leave Penrith and join the Sharks], Wade Graham and Ben Pomeroy, helped me decide,’’ said Lewis on the deck of their waterfront home with panoramic views over Burraneer Bay, a home they’re renting until they find one to buy.

‘‘Also Flanno [Sharks coach Shane Flanagan] was assistant NSW Origin coach and I liked his style, and Gal [captain Paul Gallen] of course was alongside.

‘‘I think the dream just emphasised they were a good fit, and I wanted to play with them all.’’

He hadn’t had reason to laugh about anything much in 2012, for sure.

A Penrith junior who grew up in Blacktown (and was coached at Blacktown City by Wade Graham’s father), the 12-Test representative with 12 NSW Origin games and a premiership win under his belt, Lewis entered the season believing he’d be a ‘‘Panther for life’’.

Whether new Penrith coach Ivan Cleary had the same views isn’t clear. But it was Cleary who stripped the captaincy off Lewis leading into the Origin series and gave it to hooker, Kevin Kingston, for what Cleary promised to be temporary and only for the duration of the Origin period.*

However, Kingston was retained as captain for the remainder of the year, and many suggest this was a catalyst for Lewis leaving the club, after featuring in all three Origin games and considered one of NSW’s best in a losing series.

The club granted Lewis a release from the final two years of his contract, and on July 20, Lewis signed a four-year contract with the Sharks, rejecting contracts from the Wests Tigers, Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels.

It prompted scenes of shock, confusion and, in Panther territory, some *outrage.*

The week after his release, Lewis badly jarred his neck making a tackle in a game against the Tigers — and by accident a CT scan found a five-centimetre lump on his thyroid.

They cut half his thyroid out, but the specialist told him the next week that tests showed the lump was a ‘‘grade five’’ (high cancer risk), so they removed the rest of his thyroid.


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‘‘The first person I rang was Flanno, but he just told me to ‘worry about your health and not football’,’’ Lewis recalled. ‘‘I really appreciated him for that, having signed up with the Sharks and then getting that news.’’

Despite a niggling side strain picked up a few weeks ago which prevented him playing in the Sharks two trials, Lewis has just enjoyed his first full off season of training in five years.*

‘‘We’ve all trained hard under Flanno and [new conditioner] David Boyle and I can’t wait until round one,’’ he said. ‘‘I am just excited to get out there finally.’’
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Source: http://www.theleader.com.au/story/1339790/luke-lewis-big-league-dream-becomes-a-reality/?cs=1633
 
Tatus

Tatus

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I have heard so many times from different players from different clubs, about how this had been the first full pre season they had completed in years. Look for 2013 to be a big year for a few players. I'm tipping Inglis for Dally M
 
Gibs

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I'm tipping Micky G for Dally M and apparently the tab is too (last time I checked he was favourite at $4.50)
 
Gibs

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Ok nso that was his group winning odds but its been pushed out to $5.00

$61.00 to gt the dally M
 
Born&bred

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THE anti-doping scandal could soon begin to impact on the club's new recruits, with NSW forward Luke Lewis fuming over the way coach Shane Flanagan was stood down by the Sharks board.

When Lewis left Penrith, the primary reasons he signed at the Sharks was to play under coach Flanagan and alongside mates Paul Gallen and Wade Graham.

But as ASADA's anti-doping cloud hovers above Shark Park, The Sunday Telegraph has been told the star recruit could reconsider the terms of his four-year contract depending on how it plays out.

If Lewis, like the rest of the Cronulla players, continues to feel Flanagan has been unjustly made a scapegoat, then he may opt to look for an alternative club.

When the The Sunday Telegraph phoned his agent Greg Willett to ask if Lewis had a get-out clause if Flanagan was not coach, he replied: "Put it this way, when I did the deal he signed to play under Shane Flanagan".

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...weigh-up-options/story-e6frexnr-1226593866060
 
BlackWhiteBlue

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In all honesty, not sacking, but standing down Flanno is probably the boards way of ensuring players can't activate that clause......he hasnt been sacked, so youd imagine a get out clause would be near impossible to be used at this point
 
SHARKSTER

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Clean out the 2011 Board, then we have purged the naughty people.

Flanno gets reinstated.

We and NRL plead mercy for players as it was clearly done without their knowledge

Minimal bans and warnings applied

Sharks start rebuild mode

ASADA moves on to others.

Big crap hits fan. One club nearly totally dismantled

Sharks forgotten in light of major **** storm

Players outed from clubs similar to us or worse

Level playing field

Well I hope this is how it is suppose to pan out for us
 
bullshark77

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SHARKSTER said:
Clean out the 2011 Board, then we have purged the naughty people.

Flanno gets reinstated.

We and NRL plead mercy for players as it was clearly done without their knowledge

Minimal bans and warnings applied

Sharks start rebuild mode

ASADA moves on to others.

Big crap hits fan. One club nearly totally dismantled

Sharks forgotten in light of major **** storm

Players outed from clubs similar to us or worse

Level playing field

Well I hope this is how it is suppose to pan out for us
Click to expand...

we can all only hope, that would be awesome for us if thats how it pans out, cross all our fingers
 
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